LANGLEY – The Trinity Western Spartans fell to the UFV Cascades 60-51 on the second night of a back to back, splitting the weekend with one win and one loss. 

The Spartans had an off shooting night tonight, shooting 32% from the field, and after a slow start, could not crawl their way back into it.  

Colette Van der Hoven (Maple Ridge, B.C.)  led the Spartans in scoring with 12 points. Sydney Bradshaw (Langley, B.C.) was next with 11 points, four assists, and four rebounds. Blessing Ibekwe (Coquitlam, B.C.) flirted with a double double, scoring nine points and grabbing 10 boards to go along with five blocks. For the Cascades, it was Julia Tuchscherer who had a game high 17 points, with Fania Taylor close behind with 16. 

UP NEXT

The Spartans are on the road to Prince George next week to play UNBC. Game time at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre is set for 6 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on Canada West TV.

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TWU head coach Cheryl Jean-Paul

"This was a tough loss. I think that when you have the type of game that you had the night before, it really is about whether you can match the other team's momentum coming into the second night. ?They obviously had something to prove, and I think they did their job. Our goal coming into tonight's game was to not try to redo what happened yesterday, but in order for us to have success tonight, we had to make sure that we didn't get outworked. I thought that for a big chunk of the first half anyways, we got outworked. ?To be able to go through some of the things that we were struggling with earlier in the preseason with having some low- scoring quarters, the difference tonight versus some of our previous preseason games is that I thought we could lean back onto our defence to get the job done until offence came, and I thought that we just gave up too many free throws and too many offensive rebounds for our defence to be able to fuel what needed to happen on offence. This isn't the end of the world in terms of losing this game at this point of the season because again, we have had so many costly turnovers that when we needed to make a push at the end of the game, we were already at 22 plus turnovers. Then you have to play a higher risk of basketball to try to get yourself back into this gamer or take the entire lead or retake the lead. ?The challenge was we had already given them Wade too many second chances to do so, so until we correct the turnover decision making, we're going to continue to struggle in these kind of punch for punch type of games, we needed to go to consecutive offensive series with two really great decisions back to back and we weren't able to that today So that's gonna be the next thing on the list of of major corrections and this group has stepped up every single time that we've challenged them to be able to be ready for the what's next. I think that the ability to create for each other yesterday was evident. Today it wasn't quite the same. The shots weren't as easy. ?They made some defensive adjustments. And this is going to be good for us to understand what that back to back game is going to feel like. This is the first time that we've had to go through in the regular season. ?It won't be the last. And now we know that the adjustments that we have to make from Friday to Saturday are on both ends of the game."

• NOTABLE
  Trinity Western showed grit in a tight matchup, falling just short despite a strong all-around effort. The Spartans were active on the glass and in transition, outscoring Fraser Valley 11–10 in second-chance points and 7–1 on the fast break.

• TWU's bench provided an important spark, contributing 11 points compared to the Cascades' 5. Though Fraser Valley held the edge in points off turnovers (29–17) and points in the paint (22–18), the Spartans' depth and hustle kept them in striking distance throughout.

• Trinity Western tied the score three separate times and never allowed UFV to pull away comfortably, showcasing their resilience and balanced attack even when momentum swung against them.

About Spartan Athletics

As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country, and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.

About Trinity Western University

Recognized for quality, TWU has received seven consecutive A+ rankings for Quality of Teaching and Learning, holds three Canada Research Chairs, and wins national championships in U SPORTS. More importantly, lives are changed at TWU through its whole-person, Christ-centred approach to education. With a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree-completion programs, TWU equips leaders of character and competence to make a positive impact in the lives of others.

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